Sealants and sound dampeners typically are applied to a variety of areas in automobile bodies such as interior floor pans, firewalls, decklids, and between the inner and outer panels of doors. Conventionally, sealants have comprised plastisols that can be applied between and upon metal seams, welds and within hollow cavities of autobodies. Generally, sealants are used to impart structural integrity and to create a barrier against dirt and exhaust gases. Sound dampeners typically are pre-cut pieces of fibrous asphaltic material or aluminum constrained butylene rubber used to dampen road and engine noise that can be transmitted through the autobody substrates.
A sprayable coating composition having vibration and harsh noise reduction or absorption properties is disclosed in International Application WO 99/16840. The sprayable coating composition comprises a mixture of flexible epoxy resins and rigid epoxy resins. The flexible epoxy resins are defined as those having elastomeric chains in the backbone; and the rigid epoxy resins are defined as those epoxy resins having bisphenol moieties in the backbone. The mixture of the flexible and rigid epoxy resins should be such that the peak glass transition temperature of the composition is 10° C. or greater.
Conventionally, sealants and sound dampeners are applied to some automotive parts in the paint shop area of an automobile assembly plant which is typically located downstream from the electrocoat tank in the automotive coating process. The application of sealants and sound dampeners in the paint shop area can result in fingerprints, dirt and/or overspray on the automotive part which must be removed prior to subsequent application of primer and/or top coatings.
The body shop is the area of an automobile assembly plant which is located upstream from and can include the electrocoat tank. In a body shop, any dirt, fingerprints, and/or overspray on the automotive part resulting from the application of sealants and sound dampeners could be washed away in the pretreatment wash cycle. It, therefore, would be advantageous to provide a composition having sealing and sound dampening properties suitable for application in the body shop area of the automotive assembly plants.